A review of the molecular biology and pathology of melanoma

Virtually all deaths in young patients with advanced skin tumors are caused by melanoma. Today, thanks to modern treatments, these patients survive longer or can even be cured. Advanced melanoma is often associated with a poor prognosis, and physicians continue to believe that the disease is difficult to treat due to the lack of durable response to initial treatment regimens and the lack of randomized clinical trials in the post-immunotherapy/targeted molecular therapy setting. New therapeutic targets are emerging based on preclinical data on the genetic profile of melanocytes and the identification of molecular factors involved in the pathogenesis of malignant transformations. In this article, we present the challenges of diagnosis, molecular biology and genetics of malignant melanoma, as well as current treatment options for patients with this diagnosis.